At present, test control consoles are employed for the functionality testing of various units, such as, for example, printing presses or parts thereof, which test control consoles make it possible for an operator, identified as a consumer, to control the individual functions of the unit to be tested and to check whether the unit reacts in the intended manner to the settings input at the test control console. Customarily the settings required for a complete functionality test are listed in a test protocol, in which test protocol the consumer can enter, if desired, the reactions of the unit to the settings performed and reported by the test control console in order to document, in this way, the correct or the incorrect functioning of the unit. This procedure is lengthy, time-consuming and contains uncertainties which never completely eliminate the possibility that the consumer does not make erroneous settings, does not correctly enter results in the protocol, or omits test steps.
DE 197 25 916 A1 describes a diagnostic device for electrically controlled systems, in which additional libraries are added to a diagnostic program. The automatic running of several functions and the input of plain language are not disclosed.
DE 195 22 937 C2 discloses a diagnostic system for a motor vehicle with a “fixed” diagnostic program. No plain language input is provided.
A testing device for an electro-medical apparatus is known from DE 36 02 171 A1. Access to a data bank for preparing a test program is not possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,109 discloses a method and a device for the remote diagnosis of units already placed in an installation by the customer. A unit to be diagnosed can be selected from a predetermined number. Parameters are assigned to the unit, whose measured values are then detected by the device by use of a remote diagnosis and are shown on a display. A user can either make notes in a “memo field”, or can select further parameters to be measured from a predetermined number of parameters and display them. By use of a further tool, the user can select a testing program from a predetermined number, which has a fixed sequence of steps.